A site has not yet been selected, although interest has been expressed in the South Monroe corridor. The main thing it should accomplish, DeLeo said, is to be accessible.

“We want to be part of the environment. We want people to come and see us every day,” he said. “Not because something is wrong or there is a problem but because we want to be part of the community and sometimes that gets lost.”

Buy Photo

Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo(Photo: Hali Tauxe/Democrat)

DeLeo said in searching for a new headquarters police departments often focus on safety barriers. He said he’d like to see basketball courts, a community park a community meeting room and classrooms and a playground.

And he’d like his office to be on the ground floor to improve accessibility to the public and his employees.

“That’s very progressive and unusual,” he said.

TPD, which is currently housed in the old Sealey Elementary School building on Seventh Avenue, is growing in terms of the number of employees and variety of services it offers. And the agency is working on modernizing its operations.

A space-needs analysis is near completion to determining what TPD requires of the building. DeLeo said the consulting firm has spoken with TPD employees as it tries to determine the department's future needs.

“They have met with probably over 100 employees to talk about our vision and to try to plan not just this campus for today but what does our community need 10 years from now, 20 years from now,” DeLeo told commissioners. “Because the investment we’re going to ask you to make is a significant one, we want to make sure it’s a long lasting one that’s appropriate.”

Interim City Manager Reese Goad said to expect a site to be selected this year.

“In 2018 the major milestone will be the acquisition of land,” he said.

City Commissioner Scott Maddox said it is time to move TPD into a new, modern facility. Annually, $150,000 in maintenance funding is pumped into the current building.

But whatever is done, he and others insisted that the process of site selection, design and construction be competitive.

“I think it’s extremely important that we have an open process on every step,” Maddox said.

Mayor Andrew Gillum said although a dollar figure has not yet been set, there should be ample time for “intense” citizen input.

“I am concerned on cost and I know we haven’t talked numbers yet. I know that it's going to be important for us to walk the community through,” he said. “The best way to preempt it is to start to kick this idea out to the public and let them feel some ownership of it.

“This is public money. This has to be done in a transparent and public way.”

As of November, violent crime dropped by more than 8 percent and property crime dipped by nearly 7 percent, according to police data.

The data is self-reported annually to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The FBI, which compiles the data annually, as well as other groups, warn against using crime data to make comparisons because specific conditions and community factors vary.

TPD has installed cameras in the Bond Neighborhood that are already showing signs of stemming crime in that area. Additionally, TPD working in the Frenchtown and Griffin Heights neighborhoods has worked to raze derelict properties and solicited input from citizens on the crime trends they see each day.

With 821 more arrests made through November 2017 than the previous year, Assistant City Manager Barber said she is confident the trend will continue.

“This is not an issue that we’re going to police our way out of,” she said. “But what we are finding is with the right combination of the government’s involvement, police resources, community engagement and working with our primary agencies, we’re able to move the needle.”

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter.